Nudging inside the public sector turns into orders

Although there has been resistance to it, there is strong evidence that governments need nudges just as much as the populations they govern, writes Stephen Bartos.

While there are literally hundreds of examples of nudges governments have used on groups of people, or sometimes the whole population of a country, there are very few where governments have used nudges on themselves to improve public administration.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in Australia’s management of the public sector through the COVID-19 pandemic.